bassman7755

21 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

21 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

Current doesn't determine the signal level, voltage does. Input impedance doesn't affect the signal voltage flowing in the cable.

I think were both right but just arguing over the semantics of "signal" which to me means voltage and current since to transmit the signal we need some current to flow.

11 hours ago, chyc said:

 the case against making it too high is not so obvious.

The case is that the cables effective parallel capacitance affects a higher current (for a given voltage) less than a lower one, not a dramatic effect except in extreme conditions admittedly like perhaps where you have very long and/or poor quality cable.

1 hour ago, Gareth Hughes said:

Piezo pickups typically used on double basses work better with input impedances higher than 1megohm, so they’re just making it more enticing to upright players. As far as I’ve heard/experienced, a higher input impedance doesn’t make any difference for electric basses.

Well it can make in theory degrade the sound as you have less signal current flowing in the cable, probably not noticeable on a shortish good quality cable though but better to use the right input for the job just to be sure.

1 hour ago, rmorris said:

Hi. I see your whole post. But quickly on this - cos I'm on mobile and a tediously slow train from London to Brighton 🙄 - the pro line level is nominally +4dBu that does indeed equate to approx 3.5V pk-pk. But any system is expected to handle peak levels in the range of typically 21 to 24 dBu requiring Voltage rails in excess of +/- 9V or 12V.

Typical pro audio gear runs OpAmps at minimum +/-15V and typically +/-17V.

But nevertheless high end hifi gear can exceed 100 db snr at much lower signal levels than this. 

2 hours ago, bassist_lewis said:

I tried using it at higher gain about an hour ago and I think there was slightly less compression that at 9V, not something you would notice in a band situation. I also haven't noticed any difference in where it starts to break up or the variation at lower settings, between the two voltages.

A circuit with a particular gain structure will have less overdrive when running at a higher voltage given the same input signal.

The question is - if you increase/decrease the gain inline with the rail voltage, does the circuit behave significantly differently. In the case of this pedal, does it sound any worse, or have a noticeably worse SNR at the lower voltage if you turn the gain down to compensate ?, I'm guessing not. "headroom" / "dynamics" are just SNR i.e. relative not absolute, if you have proportionately less noise at the lower voltage then there is no headroom reduction.

8 minutes ago, Biscuit_Bass said:

Thanks all. I'll definitely go into my local music shop and have a feel of the models I like the look of.

 

 To begin with at least, I'll mostly just be practicing solo through headphones. I'd like to be able to play along to backing tracks as well. Can this be done with an amp or would I need a mixing desk for that as well?

I think mixing in tracks will come later on so wouldn't be one of my priorities to start with.

Cheers

Get a zoom b1-4, the veritable swiss army knife of bass gear, does everything you want and loads more.

10 minutes ago, Boodang said:

Honestly you can't go wrong with any of those choices.

Havnt played those exact bases but budget yamaha stuff is always very solid. 

28 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

At that price range, I think I'd go used.

Possibly an option if you buy one from a reputable shop or classified like basschats sales, wouldnt recomment a complete newbie go for something random off ebay/craigslist/faebook though.

4 hours ago, rmorris said:

 

But some electronic devices eg OpAmps don't operate to the same spec' at lower voltages. A 9V supply means that an OpAmp is running at only +/-4.5V. Let's say it needs a 1V headroom so a 3.5V peak. This approximates to a 2.5Vrms signal. A transient from a medium to high output passive pickup can exceed this.

But you could presumably just passively voltage divided the input before the opamp input (which is what the volume control in the bass is doing essentially). Also why are all these 9v effects units and preamps not clipping all the time if this is such a problem ?. Also my B4-1 sounds exactly the same at 5v USB power as it does at 9v so presumably internally its running at just 5v.

Quote

Plus spec in terms of THD+N etc is likely worse than at higher voltage supply. Then if it's on a battery then that battery voltage will fall a bit over time and make the situation worse. (How it decreases depends on the battery chemistry type).

Increasing the voltage to 18V likely more than doubled the signal headroom (because the 1V gap needed to the voltage rail doesn't double) and the audio spec is probably better.

So why does hifi and studio equipment get by just fine with high SNRs when using  line level signals everywhere, the highest level being +4db / 3.5v peak to peak ?. 

Still not convinced this is anything other than voodoo folklore to part bassists with more money.

6 hours ago, bassist_lewis said:

I got a Fulltone OCD last week, and its a great "transparent" overdrive, though also has a nice mid-push with the HP switch. It runs at 9V and 18V, so I got an adapter because every forum says that running at 18V is better than 9V (more headroom, more dynamics etc). I AB'd it at both voltages and honestly I can't hear or feel much difference. Maybe a tiny bit more top end/high-mids.

Are my ears dumb or is it just another of those pedal myths?

I call cow poop on 18v, the vast majority of audio processing in the world is done at half a volt or less so not sure why bass preamps or effects would get some magic benefit from a massively higher voltage. I cant hear any fundamental difference between my 18v status and a 9v active (or even passive) instrument. 

10 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

👍 ^^

 

And (as @ bassman7755 will already know!)  it's also got a very decent LED tuner and comes with built in drum machine for home practice plus an excellent headphone amp if you fancy doing "silent" practice. That's ignoring its day job capability as a multifx. All for £65 new...say no more!

Yeah mind blowing value really,  thinking of getting a second one to use as my gigging rig (b4-1 into my techamp puma to replace my rh450).

8 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

Yes i remember gigging with the prototypes, they could be overwhelming  My drummer at the time once repeatedly asked me to turn it up, so I did, at the end of the first set he said 'I couldn't hear my effing snare drum'

 

covering one port won't be enough to make a real difference try going down to two. This is what it will do to frequency response

Surely if all you want is this minor EQ tweak then its better to achieve it earlier in the signal chain (pickup mix, instrument tone controls, an EQ effect, amp tone controls etc) - the speaker is surely the worst place to do it as your wasting power and efficiency. 

28 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Speaking of on-stage monitors @steve-norris an active PA monitor could actually be a very good value solution, for what you're after, particularly if you're pairing with a pre-amp pedal or a even a cheap multifx. like the Zoom B1-4, which has multiple pre-amp sims available.

 

E.g. an Alto TS 308 will give you all the power you need and comes in below £250.

I practice at home using my B4-1 into my hifi setup.

2 hours ago, TimR said:

 

I'd hazard a guess that those bands never heard of dynamics internal or external. If you're playing with good musicians that should never happen.

True, there an ability level above which this doesn't happen so much but that accounts for a fairly small minority of players and bands in my experience.

26 minutes ago, ubit said:

 

 

Get a grip. You learn from your mistakes. Clear enough?

To explain what said before a bit further, what I've observed in the past is that bands than don't practice/rehearse (at all or not particular songs which "everyone knows inside out") experience "drift" rather than actual mistakes i.e. the songs change over time and usually for the worst. Nuances get lost, songs degrade from having their own unique groove and edge to song-x-played-in-the-generic-style-of-the-band.

I imagine at some point we've all seen a really boring covers bands where the chords and melody change but not much else throughout the whole set. Of course that's an extreme example but a lot of bands suffer from this to some degree. Its a trap I've fallen into myself thinking "oh this song is so easy I/we don't need to practice it" and then having actually listened to the original having not done so for years sometime I'm actually quite shocked at how much essence of it has been lost and how much a travesty of it our version of it has become.

1 hour ago, kwmlondon said:

Well, it got a very good setup not long ago so I'm reluctant to shell out another £35 on it for a setup plus £40 to fit a nut plus the cost of the nut plus a new set of strings (because if it's getting all that attention I'd put new strings on) - I may do but not for a while yet.

 

Thinking about it more objectively it's likely to be the neck because if it was the nut I'd have noticed it before now - I tend to doubt myself and think "why didn't I notice this before, I can't have been playing this bass enough" rather than "this used to be fine, what's changed?"

 

Also, I'd like to try more 5-strings now I'm getting more of a feel for this one. I don't mind spending proper money if it something I really know I'll like and that I'll play but at the moment I'm still working that out. 

This is a good explanation of how to check the truss rod tension, essentially you just fret the bottom string at 1st and last frets at the same time and check the gap, too big a gap (at its maximum point) between the string and fret means the rod is too loose, no gap means its too tight:

Also I think you need to take the string change out of the cost equation too, as you will probably want to put new ones on anyway at some point (and if you dont then theres no reason to do so for the setup). Plus you might buy a new bass and in a years time it have the same problem as the neck has settled and needs readjustment.

1 hour ago, kwmlondon said:

I thought of this, considered cutting some of the inside of a biro to make some sleeve for the strings to go above the nut. If anyone's got any better suggestions for a quick-fix then I'd give it a go.

You probably need something thinner that that, a bit of thin paper as an experiment. If that is the problem I then it should be a very easy fix to raise the nut slightly: heat gun or iron to release the glue, glue a thin wooden shim underneath and re glue nut. You can even build up an individual string height using superglue and some filler like cotton wool. Theres loads of youtube vids on both.

2 hours ago, Nail Soup said:

True for many,but there are some bands who are tight by gigging so don't need rehearsals to get tight. (Note: I have never been part of such a band!).

I too have never experienced this phenomena of gigging acting as rehearsal, my experience is that faults in the way a band play a song tend to become worse over time not better, these are not "mistakes" as such but deviations of how the song is supposed to be played that creep in over time. Usually to do with things like exactly which chord changes should be syncopated (e.g. change a half beat ahead) vs not.

The only way I can imagine this happening are a) every member of the band is a top tier players with great attention to detail b) noone give a stinky poo if the songs are a bit ropey as long as roughly the right thing was played and vocal melody as more or less right. I actually do know of one or two bands in the former category but they are originals outfits and I generally don't "do" original bands.

The epi 310 is like a 750w rms cab with fairly decent sensitivity as I recall having owned one some years back, I played in some pretty loud bands and never scratched the surface of what that cab was capable of TBH. If your after more volume I'm pretty sure the cab isnt the limiting factor.

2 hours ago, lemmywinks said:

Could just try rail pickups instead of ones with individual pole pieces?

 

I think Bartolinis and some EMGs are rails under the covers.

Yeah the original pickups are emg selects which I think are blades, but I was specifically looking for something with more old school sound so wanting to try something alnico V based.

3 hours ago, Maude said:

 

Which achieves what? 

 

That's not meant to sound as abrupt as it does. I'm genuinely interested in what this does to the sound. 

🙂

Hum cancellation - you've essentially got a humbucker but with one coil inside the other. 

8 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

I'm using an Orange Terror head which has two 4 ohm speaker outputs

Your amp does not have two 4 ohm outputs, it has one 4 ohm output with 2 parallel output jacks wired to it. Which is why ...

7 hours ago, Jus Lukin said:

Looking at the manual, the minimum load is 4 Ohms, so both cabs would need to be 8 Ohms. It will do 1x8, 2x8, or 1x4.

... is the formula you are looking for.

Sorry had to be done ...

2 hours ago, ubit said:

  Heres the tab, watch out it is quite tricky!

 

 

Great thing about this tune is it easy to transpose, you know incase the singer cant be silent in tune on the high notes.

1 hour ago, uk_lefty said:

Thanks Phil. I'm looking for a "one size fits all" solution. I'm joining a new band that play larger venues where PA provision will be better than what I was previously used to, but I can also see me needing just my amp and no PA cover for smaller gigs. Good point on the drummer, I shall ask him.

 

The rationale behind my choice of 15s or 4x10 was not scientifically informed. I like the sound of two fifteens having had it before. I don't like the sound of a single 2x10 or my fifteen with a 2x10, but I thought a good quality 4x10 would be a decent single cab solution. I don't find the single fifteen on its own very good but I've never angled it before. 

Your likes and dislikes will be related to the specific cab designs, not the fact that they are 15's or 10's. I guarantee you that there plenty of 2x10s that you would love and 15's that you would hate.

3 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

If you play all the fills.

 

Folks do realise the chorus isn't just 3 or 4 notes? This will play from 4:20:

 

 

What have I started ?? 😉. But yes there is some very tasty major pentatonic riffing going on, and then it ends on those pumping octaves. Such great playing deserves to be done justice, busking it up is just sacrilege really.

2 hours ago, Skinnyman said:

In fairness, even I managed to nail the verse on first listen.

 

Took a bit longer for the chorus, but the verse? Easy

I didnt say it was not a potential one-listener for someone with decent ability. Rather I used as an example of a song that you could not play convincingly by busking it from just knowing the chords e.g. by just following the bands guitarist, having never sat down to listen to it (even if only once). Another example would be Run To You.